Our Public Statues And Memorials.

racter , forming , as a , whole , an artistic object which at once arrests the attention of the spectator , and seems a worthy tribute of the art and genius of the present to the art and genius of the past—a worthy monument to the author of " Le Misanthrope , " "Le Tartuffe , " and "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme . " Why have we not such a monument to Shakspeare ? It is not that we cannot

afford it , or that we have no artists to execute such a work . It is that in matters of art in a public form there is a niggard feeling among us that affords our artists few opportunities of practising monumental decoration on . so brilliant a scale as on the Continent . Our House of Commons is more narrowly parsimonious in voting money for the protection of the fine arts than for any

other item in the whole length of the annual budget . It was not always so . In times not very far distant , and in which we have been taught to believe the arts languished for want of protection , much more liberal patronage seems to have been extended to artists in general , and more especially do the fitting enrichments of public monuments seem to have been far better

understood and far more willingly paid for . In some very interest archieological gossip , recently published in the Builder , we find no less a personage than Grinling Gibbons himself employed to decorate the pedestal of the statue of Charles II . at Windsor . The importance and beauty of the ornaments may be judged of from the charge , which , considering the general valie of artistic

work at that period , appears enormous . The memorandum in the royal account , dated from October , 1678 , to September , 1680 , contains , among other charges by Gibbons , the following -. — " Cutting and carving of the 4 white marble panels of y ° pedestal of his Maj ' statue on horse-back , £ 400 . " If such artists in decorative sculpture were now employed on our public monuments , and paid after this fashion , we should soon see them more fitly enriched with the right sort of work . Purely ornamental sculpture was

equally cared for m the reign of William III . We find from the researches of the same zealous antiquary that Cais Gabriel Gibber , the well-known decorative sculptor , was constantly employed on carvings of a purely ornamental character at Hampton Court , for which he was most liberally paid . Here is one of his bills : — "To Cains Gabriel Gibber , carver , for a great vavee of white marble

enricht with divers ornaments , with a pedestal of stone , also enricht , £ 234 . More for a great marble urne , with divers base-relieves and figures , £ 521 12 s . ; in both £ 755 12 s . " If we now appreciated ornamental sculpture in this spirit , and if the decorative surroundings of our public statues were paid for at the present day after this fashion , we should soon , as we have said , have national ,

memorials springing up in various parts of our metropolis , which would not fear comparison with tbe most celebrated foreign works of this class . But there has been an artistic misconception concerning the true character of public memorials in this country . The statue itself , even if of inferior character , has been deemed the one thing necessary , whilst , on the contrary , it is in the manner of

presenting that statue to the public eye that the true character of a publi « monument should consist , and this has often been said before in the Builder . When an eminent living person is about to be received on some mark occasion by the authorities , and the general public of a great city , he is not requested to walk in on foot , unattended , and with nothing to distinguish his

entry on that occasion from the entrance of an ordinary man in the routine of daily business -. the very reverse is practised . Arches of greenery , enriched scrolls , emblems , and other decorations meeting him at every step , thehouses are festooned with flowers , and groups of lovely children , as symbols of purity and joy , arrayed in festal dress , greet him with the joyous cheers of their young voices . It is so that our living worthies are presented to the public , and it is so that their marble representations , after death should be presented , in the more permanent forms of

Our Public Statues And Memorials.

bronze or -marble . The statue is there , not to be put upon a _ blank and solitary pedestal , but to be surrounded with signs of respect aud gratitude , in that permanent form which art , when properly directed , can so fittingl y bestow . The pleasant arches of living greenery that welcomed the living should be transformed to marble wreaths to honour the dead . The festoons of flowers should also be there ,

not in their perishable form , but in some long enduring material ; and the smiling children , too , in gilded bronze in rare stone , in perennial granite , or in the purity of whitest marble , may be there too . It is the manner in which the statue is honoured , not the mere presence of the statuo itself thai gives grace , value , and beauty to the memorial . Instead of this , the appendages of our public

statues are always niggardly , and often confined to a mere inscription , which is not unfrequently very carelessly executed . The plain granite stage-work of the Guards' memorial in Waterloo-place is clumsily built up of separate blocks , put together in a way that shows every staring joint , with its wretched mortar , in a very offensive manner , while in a work of such importance the common

processes of construction ought , above all things , to be entirely concealed . All should seem the work of the artist : not a single trace of the mechanical labour should appear : not a joint but should have sought refuge under some ornamental moulding , or against some inlaid slab of rare material , or beneath some highly-wrought symbol or trophy . A Grinling Gibbons—and we have plenty of

them—should have furnished his " 4 white marble panels for ye pedestal , " and havo further enriched it , as he did the twenty-eight seats and stalls at Windsor , which , according to his bill , he " cawed with fruit , flowers , palms , laurels , and pelicans , " and there should have been a Caius Gabriel Gibber to embellish the angels , at different elevations , with " great vauses of white marble enricht with

divers ornaments , ''' and with "great marble urnes with divers bas-reliefs and figures . " We have plenty of Caius Gabriel Gibbers ready for the work ; but we live in an age when sculptors are found who are fully convinced that they do not require the assistance of the decorative carvor , and architects who care nothing for the aid of the sculptor and painter . We have abundance of artistic

genius in every class , but the team does not run well together . The different branches of art require combination . The sculptor , the decorative carver , the architect , the painter , do not yet fully appreciate how entirely a monument of the hi ghest class depends upon the wellbalanced and harmonious union of all their various arts , blended by a common feeling into one harmonious whole .

We have been induced to make these remarks in the hope of convincing our designers of public monuments that the placing of a memorial statue on a badly-built heap of grey granite is not the proper way of presenting the statue of a departed worthy to the eyes of posterity . We may be told in reply of recent statues placed in fine Gothic niches , but a mere framing of conventional Gothic

can seldom form a very appropriate kind of decoration to a memorial statue erected in the present day ; and on a future occasion we may have something more to say on the subject of Medi _ eval monuments to modern heroes . — JB-wt-cfa-.

Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

A life of Victor Hugo , written it is said , by his wife , is shortly to be published in Paris . Like Lady Morgan ( says the Athencevmi ) , Miss Pavdoe never told her age ; she described herself as having been born early in tbe present century ; in which case she must have been a public character at the age of 12 or 13 . The list of her works is very long , and as most of her works appear in three volumes a collection of them would fill a shelf ! The City of the Sultan had in its day a certain share of success , but neither that nor any